[the Battle Cat]

I've been playing this small Marathon map I created, and I keep going back to it time after time. It's perfect for that quick game where you win or lose in a matter of minutes. I've decided that I have to share this with folks so I'm posting it here first.

The map runs under the Infinity shapes, there are no altered physics, and all the enemy monsters and weapons are there. By "enemy monsters" I am excluding monsters that fight other monsters such as the yeti. I don't want the Pfhor to be distracted from killing us. The map is based on Hell Hole v2, yet is very much different. The original Hell Holes have never ending monsters that will fight you as long as you can keep picking up health. This incarnation, The Holodeck, starts you out with 3X powerup and you fight a finite number of monsters. A comm term will tell you if you won, a monster killing you will tell you if you lost.

It has a high difficulty rating, meaning you will die most of the time if playing Total Carnage, but it helps you to become one magnificent bastard if you stick with it. Of course lots of whacky things seem to happen, and one of them has prompted me to post the map. I shot a rocket at a Trooper who in turn shot a grenade at me. My rocket landed at his feet just behind him so he was thrown forward forcing him into the impact of his own grenade... killing him. I had to watch the film a couple of times to verify the incident. Because I don't have a girlfriend who will watch me play Marathon, I have to depend on you guys to watch the film and gasp at my greatness.

The map comes with a couple of films, one is the Battle Cat beating the pants off of the game, and another is the Battle Cat cheating the underpants off of the game. The trooper suicide film is a separate download (its also a bit jerky because I had just finished a game of Medal of Honor with a very slow mouse sensitivity and I wasn't used to how fast I have my Marathon mouse set at.)

 the_holodeck.zip (1.25MB)
Number of downloads: 1
 The_Holodeck_Trooper_suicide.zip (9.13K)
Number of downloads: 18

Remember, the map goes into a standard Infinity folder and is played with Aleph One on all the default environment settings. It will crash a game of Marathon 2 and the films will not play properly if non-vanilla Infinity files are selected in the environment settings.

Enjoy, let me know what you think, and post your films here.

[the Battle Cat]

What? NOBODY? Criminy, wattabunchapussies.

[teflon]

I's just skared o' dem alimens!

oh, and having way too much fun in BF1943 and KZ2...

Sorry tBC, maybe Ill get round to giving this a go and dying in 10 seconds flat in a few days.

[the Battle Cat]

Don't make me come over there.

[DaveyJJ]

the Battle Cat, on July 14th 2009, 02:30 PM, said:

Don't make me come over there.

Come over here? Hell, you don't even know where we live, you sil ... oh wait, the doorbell, be right back.

[the Battle Cat]

::wiping the snot and blood from his knuckles::

I know where you ALL live.

[Tesseract]

Still zero downloads?

"Computer, load program Tesseract Seven."
"Program complete. Enter when ready."

[the Battle Cat]

Tesseract, on July 14th 2009, 05:22 PM, said:

Still zero downloads?

"Computer, load program Tesseract Seven."
"Program complete. Enter when ready."

Yeah, what's up with that? I'm telling ya, I don't know what is wrong with people these days. It's free, it's fun, and it's a perfect opportunity to suck up to the forum admin!

From the Read Me:

Mother Earth is looking for a few good cyborgs. Do you think you have what it takes? There is only one way to find out, and that is to take the test.

The UESC is in the process of testing and screening out the less fit Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborgs. Will you be the creme that rises to the top? Those who pass the Combat and Tactics Certification test will be sent on a deep space mission aboard the colony ship UESC Marathon to Tau Ceti.

The test will consist of a holographic representation of a hypothetical battlefield you may encounter in deep space. Be advised that for the purposes of this test, the fail-safe must be disengaged. You enter the testing holodeck at your own risk.

To quote President Marcus Tiberius Buendia, "Mankind will venture out past its earthly bounds and move into a future grander and more real than the total of its own written history. This, the grandest achievement mankind has ever conceived will be for the purpose of peace and the preservation of the human race."

Be a part of history. Be a UESC Security Officer.

[the Battle Cat]

Oh, and post your films here too.

[J'nathus]

I *sniff* . . don't have Marathon. I used Macs in high school (early 90s for those who don't know how geriatric I am) . . . and not again until about 3-4 years ago. Methinks I missed the Marathon era.

OTHERWISE I'd be all over your new map.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

I'd love to check it out, but have had zero time for any games this week. Hopefully soon though.

[Janichsan]

J, on July 15th 2009, 09:43 PM, said:

I *sniff* . . don't have Marathon. I used Macs in high school (early 90s for those who don't know how geriatric I am) . . . and not again until about 3-4 years ago. Methinks I missed the Marathon era.

OTHERWISE I'd be all over your new map.

That's a rather lame excuse considering Marathon is completely available for free.

[Eric5h5]

Janichsan, on July 15th 2009, 04:22 PM, said:

That's a rather lame excuse considering Marathon is completely available for free.

And runs natively on OS X thanks to Aleph One. And has enhanced texture packs so there shouldn't be any whining about being too low-res and stuff. So yeah, very lame excuse.

--Eric

[J'nathus]

LISTEN!!! You leave me and my lame excuses alone.

. . . . Well . . .


WHERE does one obtain Marathon for free . . . with the updated textures, and the running on OS X and (insert silly continuation of run-on sentence here) . . .

[PeopleLikeFrank]

I refrain from linking to LMGTFY:

Download Marathon.

Updated Engine.

It's all available from one convenient page on the Aleph One site though.

[the Battle Cat]

There is just no excuse for not playing this map. Well you could be dead, I'd accept that excuse, but I want to see your heart and lungs in a large jar to prove it.

[J'nathus]

the Battle Cat, on July 15th 2009, 04:41 PM, said:

There is just no excuse for not playing this map. Well you could be dead, I'd accept that excuse, but I want to see your heart and lungs in a large jar to prove it.

I'm not dead. Alive and kick <*kick*> . .. see?

No excuse eh? Well I need to take all of those many Marathon downloads and turn them into a functioning game. After that, I need to see if it's graphically good enough for me to not hate it. After we overcome those obstacles, I'll work on the map and the 10 seconds of life.

If it's pity-able... well, beware, I'm not afraid to use harsh language. POOP! . . see? I'm a rebel!

[the Battle Cat]

It's not impossible to win, it's just a tough fight. Ammo, weapons and monsters are in a new random position each time you start a new game. If you can't win after several tries and are getting frustrated, turn down the difficulty level and get better before you turn it back up. The reason I originally made the first Hell Hole was for practice playing the game. It made me a much better fighter, not just for Marathon but for other FPSs.

If you have any questions about getting Marathon set up and running, you are surrounded by experts here.

[rampancy]

I loved the original Hell Hole (I think up to 1.2) because it was perfectly simple in its geometry and design. I remember making up my own game play modes (Emergent Gameplay?), where I would often try to defend the VacBOBs as long as I could, or tried to use only the SMG, or where I tried to use only the SSM for long-range kills.

What was also awesome was that I could easily use it with RED, EVIL, and Rubicon, too - though the environment that Hell Hole offered easily exposed some of the fundamental flaws with RED's weaponry (like how the Conch Miner's nuclear mines looked a lot like the graphic for the ammo for the minelayer).

I didn't like v1.5 as much; I think that was where you introduced variable-height terrain instead of a uniformly level map. Granted, the sniper's ledge was way cool, especially with the railgun from EVIL. My last pleasant memory was playing Hell Hole with the sadly unfinished Halothon mod. It was a hoot running around blasting Enforcers to bits with the Covenant Plasma Pistol (which of course was just a retextured Zeus, but still).

Once I get home I'll give this a shot, and even post a film, too.

[the Battle Cat]

I love it when I hear from a happy customer. I've been playing this using one of your variations, trying to win with a single weapon. Nearly impossible with the very powerful flamethrower because of the immunity of the Hunters and Compilers. You need to force others to kill them for you. The very powerful SMG gets it's ammo last, and one winds up burning through it very quickly so much of the time is spent dodging and gathering ammo. Oddly enough, I've had a lot of success with the Plasma pistol, one of the weaker weapons. Usually by the time you burn up one battery you have picked up one or two, and the Zeus Class is devastating on Compilers, Troopers, Drones and Cyborgs. Dual .44 magnums burn up more ammo than you can pick up so you wind up running around a lot looking for pistol ammo. The Alien Weapon is nearly impossible as you get one at a time and killing an Enforcer with it destroys his weapon. The dual WSTM is a powerful weapon but pretty useless at range and most powerful enemies can get in a shot at you between blasts so it is deceptively weak, best used up close against enemies it can kill in a single blast.

Currently I've been cycling through all the weapons including fists, as this gives me a good general feel for their strengths and weaknesses. I'm looking forward to seeing your films!